1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical interconnection assembly wherein a plurality of pressure contacting terminals mounted on an insulating support body are interconnected by pieces of an insulated wire in such a manner as to form a predetermined pattern and also to a process of and an apparatus for manufacturing such electrical interconnection assembly as well as a wire laying jig which is used with such manufacturing process and apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An electrical interconnection assembly wherein layered bus bar wiring plate which includes a plurality of bus bars and an insulating support disposed in an overlapping relationship with each other is built in an insulating casing and electric parts such as fuses and relays are mounted on the layered bus bar wiring plate is conventionally employed widely for the electric wiring of an automobile for the object of absorption of a joint included in the wire harness or for the protection of a circuit.
However, circuit construction is complicated where the electrical interconnection only includes bus bars, and a change of designing of an entire bus bar circuit cannot be avoided in partial modification of a circuit for different types or grades of automobiles.
Thus, an electrical interconnection assembly has been proposed and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,509 wherein a plurality of terminals (wire receiving terminals) are mounted on an insulating support body and are interconnected by way of insulated wire pieces. Such electrical interconnection assembly is shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. Referring to FIGS. 12 and 13, the electrical interconnection assembly generally denoted at 105 includes an insulating support body 100 in the form of a plate, and a plurality of wire receiving terminals 101. Each of the wire receiving terminals 101 has, at an end portion thereof, a slotted plate portion 102 having a slot 103 formed therein to receive an insulated wire to establish an electrical connection to the insulated wire and projecting from an upper face of the insulating support body 100, and further has, at the other end thereof, a terminal portion 104 formed integrally with the slotted plate portion 102 and projecting downwardly from the other lower face of the insulating support body 100. The wire receiving terminals 101 are mounted on the insulating support body 100 in any conventional known manner. The electrical interconnection assembly 105 shown in FIG. 13 is thus constructed such that the wire receiving terminals 101 are interconnected by a plurality of insulated wire pieces 106 in such a manner as to form a predetermined pattern.
The electrical interconnection assembly 105 is manufactured in the following manner. Referring to FIG. 14, first, an insulated wire 106 is laid into a groove 108 cut in a template 107, and then, the insulated wire 106 is cut into a plurality of pieces in the groove 108 by means of a carrier plate 109 on which a plurality cutting pins 110 are carried. Then, the wire pieces 106 are ejected from the groove 108 toward the insulating support body 100 and forced into the slots 103 of the wire receiving terminals 101 using an ejecting plate 111 which has a plurality ejecting pins 112 thereon. Consequently, such a product as shown in FIG. 13 is obtained.
In the electrical interconnection assembly 105 of the structure shown in FIG. 13, although the insulated wire pieces 106 are forced fitted into and thereafter retained in the slots 203 of the wire receiving terminals 101, intermediate portions of the wire pieces 106 are not supported at all, and accordingly, there is the possibility that a wire piece may be slackened or may be removed from a terminal. accordingly, high density wiring is difficult.
While the template 107 having the groove 108 cut therein is used at a pre-treatment step precedent to another step at which the wire 106 is laid along a predetermined route onto the insulating support body 100, the groove 108 allows wire laying only in a particular fixed pattern, and in order to cope with various types or grades of automobiles or various parts, a large number of templates must be prepared.
Further, when such a plurality of insulated wire pieces 106 are to be transferred from the template 107 to the insulating support body 100, since the ejecting pins 112 do not always correspond to an arrangement pattern of such wire pieces, it is difficult to assure high quality of electric contact due to a possible slack of a wire piece described above. Further, since the wire 106 is cut before it is received by the terminals 101, the wire pieces 106 are in a hashed condition when they are transferred from the template 107 to the insulating support body 100, and may move or be displaced in the groove 108 and the wire receiving positions of the terminals 101 likely become uncertain.